An Outlaw Monster (Back Down Devil MC #10)(38)

“I want to hear it from you,” Duke said. “What happened that night.”

“What night?”

“The night you were going to murder me.”

Duke was big and very unstable. His eyes kept changing as he spoke. One second he was smiling, the next he looked ready to pounce.

“Rocco and Gunner wanted to get back at you,” I said. “I don’t know why. Gunner took me into their meeting room and showed me all your pictures. He stopped at your picture and said he wanted you dead. I was put on the spot to do it. They gave me a small bottle of poison and I poured it into your drink. That’s when Trent showed up.”

“And that’s right about when I lost my mind,” Duke said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Then those other guys showed up with machine guns.”

“So you were really going to serve that drink to me?” Duke asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I was stuck in that moment, okay? Grabbing the drink, wondering if I could actually do it. Hand it to you and walk away. Try to be casual as you began to die. I tried to play it in my mind over and over and convince myself it was okay to do.” The emotion caught up in my throat. I coughed and turned my head. “They were going to destroy me if I didn’t do it. Daxton had already been pushing me around. Swinging at me. It was a moment where I would lose no matter what.” I paused and collected myself so I could look at Duke again. “It wasn’t about killing you, Duke. It was about buying myself time.”

Duke stepped toward me again. I thought about screaming but I had no breath to do it. My energy was spent trying not to break down and cry. When he reached for me, I feared the worst. He was a tough and smart biker. A military guy. He could probably choke me out or break my neck in a second.

Duke squeezed my arm. “Look at me, Harlee. I want you to listen carefully. When I was across the ocean, chasing down what felt like an invisible enemy, I had that feeling too. It was all about chasing time. Not winning a war. Watching guys I had been in basic training with getting blown up like they were nothing. And then it was my job to track down and blow up those guys. This never ending cycle of death. The only thing I clung to was a sense of time. The brotherhood I had with so many was left over there. Fuck, it’s probably still blowing around in the dust. I came back in one piece, physically, and knew the only way I could survive was to ride that feeling until death. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I’m really sorry, Duke. For everything.”

“I respect your honesty. I respect whatever it is Trent sees in you. I hope you realize for all the years I’ve known him, nobody got this close.”

“What about the woman in the picture?” I blurted out. “Who was that?”

“That’s a story I can’t tell.” Duke reached up and touched my face. “Don’t ever try to kill me again, Harlee. Because if you do and you f*ck it up, I will have to kill you.”

“Deal,” I said.

The bedroom door opened again and I turned my head to see Trent standing there.

“What the f*ck is this?”

**

I put my hand out and knew there was no stopping Trent - or Duke.

The two outlaws collided together and ended up against a wall. I let out a scream and then watched as they started to hit each other! Trent punched Duke in the stomach and Duke punched Trent in the mouth. Trent grabbed Duke by his leather cut and swung, throwing him across the room.

“There’s nothing wrong!” I yelled. “We were talking!”

Trent ran at Duke and rammed his shoulder into Duke’s gut, lifting him and slamming him against another wall. Trent got a right punch to Duke’s jaw and then Duke backhanded Trent in the face. They were then separated by a few feet and then froze.

The only sound I heard was my heart pounding inside my chest.

Duke wiped the corner of his mouth. “You done, brother?”

“Stay away from her,” Trent warned. “It’s over, Duke. The entire situation. It was all bullshit and we’re fixing it.”

“I know that,” Duke said. “Doesn’t make it right, Trent. I came to hear it from her mouth. To hear the truth. She gave it. I’m done with this.”

“Good,” Trent said. “Now stay the f*ck away from my woman and stay the f*ck away from my room.”

Duke flexed his jaw. “I’m leaving then. And just for the record, Trent, she was asking about Allie. You might want to clear that up before you walk down the aisle.”

I gasped, realizing what Duke had just done. Allie must have been the woman in the picture. Duke collected up his gun off the bed and left the room without a care in the world and I was left with the angriest version of Trent I’d ever seen. This was the monster I had been hearing about. The way he stood, somehow looking two feet taller and twice as big with muscle.

“What did you do?” he asked me.

“Nothing,” I said. “He came and cornered me. I talked. That was it.”

“You were looking around my room while I was gone.”

“I’m curious, Trent. Okay? You gave me a diamond ring that you already had…”

Trent’s right hand grabbed my waist. He pulled me close. “We’re leaving.”

“What?”

“We’re going back to my apartment.”